OK, I'm back with a nice long break. I haven't been able to keep up with the balance changes at all for the year, and have only skimmed the past few pages, but it looks like I might finally have to make a decision on where to take Scholar. Here are a few random thoughts:

- Wizard has no more space for spells, so cannot be given the Bio spells unless we lose something like say... Water or things like Frog/Death/Flare/Poison.

- Priest has always had problems with Protect/Shell. I've tried multiple things before. The current easiest way is to use the Raise formula, which will heal a % amount and add status. Rewriting the Cure spells to accept status may be possible, depending on how friendly the game is.

- I'm sure most people saw Time Mages bonus speed as more of a liability than a help, since 9 base speed means you will be more likely to act first, rather than last, like you want a mage to. I have no ideas on how to keep the class unique while fitting the theme of a time mage. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

- I like the change to Jump. Along with that, there were some Spear changes in the background, as everyone knows.Gungnir - Spear that ignores evasionEthereal Spear - Spear that deals only MP damage

- I really dislike Daggers adding speed. This stat was a major problem in early versions of Arena, among other things. The weapon just became used because it added 1 speed, and other skills were cast instead, making all daggers look the same except the ones with other benefits (evasion, PA, MA)

- The new reaction to give P-EV/M-EV to casting/performing characters sounds good. I can definitely make it, or attach it to another reacion (most likely Awareness) as well.

- As far as Defend support goes, for 139 I spent about a week trying to make it not use up an action. Needless to say, I failed miserably. Which is why it's there, pretty much acting as a noob trap.

- I can definitely add new weapons and stuff, like a staff made solely for Time Mages, or whatever archetype is needed.

- Shieldrender (Shield Break) works fine, mechanics wise. If a unit has a shield though, it gets broken with no animation played. Otherwise, the 2nd hit animation is played.

- Bow Gun (Armor Break) is bugged. On an armored unit, the animation will not be played, but works fine. If the unit has no armor, no animation is played, and no bonus damage is dealt. In other words, a regular hit.

A few clarifications on Mimes since this is the most active thread and will be seen the most.

- Mimes cannot equip Bags- A few people are confused when the Mime refuses to Mimic something. From what I have seen, this is probably because of height differences. For example, the 1 panel Chakra has a height tolerance of 0. If a Mime tries to Mimic it but the panel in front is not the same height as the Mime, nothing will happen. If there are any other issues, please feel free to point them out.- Mimes can equip weapons, as long as they have the required secondary. Same with Shields. For example, a Defender wielding Mime with Awareness and Equip Heavy Blade, similar to the old Thief builds except this time, they have some armor to go with it.

I've been overall annoyed at the problems with Mime. I can't believe I didn't test them charging a spell at all. I was tempted to give them non-charge, but that would be stupid. I'll try to fix the charging bugs, but I highly doubt that it will be possible for someone of my level.

Chaos Blade was already close to being untouched even before the other Knight Sword buffs. Paladin just has way too many options to care about a single Chaos Blade, especially when most Paladins are doing Grand Cross/Southern Cross spam anyway.

Berserk is 50% bonus PA, rounded down. Also note that they can use reactions properly, unlike in vanilla.

Once again, I will say that Phoenix Blade was changed because it made many battles 30 minute stallfests with the Phoenix Blade users getting no ground most of the time. I personally don't believe it was unbalanced, maybe a bit on the stronger end for sure with the right setups, but not outright OP like spellguns.

As a general rule, I try not to balance things based on "fun" or lack of it, and believe said "fun" will be derived from a well balanced game. However, I truly believe Phoenix Blade crossed way beyond my threshold of tolerance. When I would sometimes start falling asleep watching Arena videos, something is wrong.

If there is a way to bring back the idea of Phoenix Blade back but not be completely borked, we can give it another attempt. For now though, let's just leave it in the hole to rot.

Oh man, those Spellbreaker shots are insane. Who the hell thinks to stack Bard with that much MA as a melee killer? The Mimic Magic Songs with Summons is a really nice idea. Those Hawkeye shots from the Mime stopped Barren from doing what his team does best. Andante, killing single units causes a ton of disruption to the AI. If the enemy tries to revive, your Summons will knock the revived unit back down and punish them even more. It's a solid strategy.

Both physical heavy teams, which focuses on a lot of defense as well. Originally thought these battles would last a long time(I never look at the video duration). Some really unlucky problems for fdc. Using Berserk to get the Mimes into good positions near the enemy is a good idea though.

Yes, you are allowed to have as many Mimes as you want, as long as it fits the rules. There is no restrictions on base class. You can make a team with 4 Monks if you wanted to, as long as it follows the rules for Skillsets/Items.

The game checks for the base class. If anything is done by Job 5D (Mime), it is ignored by Mimic, or as Reks said, it would cause an infinite loop. In fact, by disabling the check, it would likely cause the Mime to Mimic itself forever. Don't even need a 2nd one.

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. IF YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE ANYTHING SUCH AS TESTING THE INFORMATION IT WILL BE APPRECIATED.

The goal of this project is to deconstruct the data table at 0x676a8, which is the entire backbone of BATTLE.BIN. Knowing which routines are loaded will improve speed and knowledge of hacking, meaning we can do even more wondrous things. FDC believes hacks such as being able to cancel Move commands will be easily achieved if this information is decoded.

These are my own notes that I put together in about 3 hours of breakpointing with Write command only. I only hope it's readable for those who need to understand.

0x960e4 change patterns- this data location seems to be important for some reason. i personally suspect that this number tells which routine to load to make FFT battles function. Things such as music, menus and all that.

CURRENTLY KNOWN LOAD SPOTS-0x79c00(BATTLE.BIN)- This is the area which uses 0x960e4 to set r2 = predetermined location in a data table, which the game then jumps to.The data table starts at 0x676a8

CURRENTLY KNOWN WRITE SPOTS (STARTS AT THE ORI [unless otherwise noted], WHICH IS THE VALUE STORED)NOTES: It is currently unknown why 0x960e4 is loaded and saved as a word, instead of a byte. So far, all write spots have been observed to be single bytes.

0x8c36c - This happened after I accepted a team at Formation. Music had not started yet.ori r2,r0,0x3a

0x71144 - This happened after music started. I believe the map had not been shown yet. Was in mid-rotation of map if i remember correctly. Please test.ori r2,r0,0x27

0x70c44 - Pressed confirm while not highlighting any unit, also happens after completing moveori r2,r0,0x03

0x713d0 - selecting the active unit.ori r2,r0,0x04

0x71478 - every time you select a unit, and there are choices. For example, selecting one of your own non active units, or checking enemy unit status. Number does not change if you go deeper into the menusori r2,r0,0x04

0x715b8 - pressing select to read further information on an action command or status screen. Basically any time while the above is trueori r2,r0,0x06

0x715f8 - Pressing Cancel on a unit to check how far they can move.ori r2,r0,0x07

0x71678 - Pressing Triangle to bring up the AT, Unit list and Options. Does not change if you go deeper into the menus unless you select a unit in AT list.ori r2,r0,0x08

0x716ec - pressing select while in the AT, Unit list and Options. Pressing Select while in Unit List does not change number.ori r2,r0,0x09

0x71738 - Selecting a unit in the AT list.ori r2,r0,0x0a

0x717e0 - Pressed "Move" Commandori r2,r0,0x0c

0x718f4 - Pressed Circle to remove the reminder on how to move a unit, also after removing "Select within movable range" boxori r2,r0,0x0d

First, the trivial scenario. If a Mime uses an attack or ability normally just like how any other unit does, it will use the equipped items as normal. Without any Equip abilities, this will be a punch. Note that Mime does not have innate Martial Arts anymore, and the attack will be very weak.

If a Mime mimics an attack, the left and right hand equipment changes to what the original user was holding. For example, if a Paladin uses Grand Cross with an Excalibur, the Mime will also mimic Grand Cross with an Excalibur. Once the mimic ends, the Mime will be given back the original equipment he had. If a shield was equipped, it will be put back on the correct hand.

HOWEVER, the changed equipment will not grant the innates from the new equipment. In the above scenario, the temporary Excalibur will not grant the user Strengthen: Holy. This means that if both units had the exact same Brave and PA, the original user will do more damage, due to Strengthen: Holy unless the Mime also has Strengthen: Holy from another source (for example, 108 Gems). Innates include bonus PA, MA, Speed, Immunities, Weaknesses, Resists and Strengthens as well as status effects. Basically, anything in the Attributes tab.

CONVERSELY, any innates that the Mime has gained from the equipment in his hands will not be lost. For example, the bonus PA from Genji Shield will not be lost during a Mimic, or the MA bonus from Rune Blade.

Be careful how you build your Mimes. A Mime copying a Mace of Zeus Grand Cross will not be able to absorb it unless there is Absorb: Lightning already on the unit somewhere. If in doubt, use skills that won't hit self, like Summons or Southern Cross.